Frost Damage is one of the three elemental damage effects available from the school of Destruction. In addition to damaging health, Frost Damage also drains the target's stamina, usually by the same amount as the Health damage dealt, and slows movement. Another advantage is that Frost Damage's AOE spell, Ice Storm, can go through walls (though it does far less damage this way) and enemies, easily hitting them where the other two elements' AOE spells would have trouble. Its disadvantages however is that it is the most resisted element in Skyrim, with most of your NPC opponents being Nords which have an inborn 50% resistance to it, as well as a good amount of creatures not to mention Frost Dragons. On top of this, Ice Storm has the shortest range of any non-concentration spell. Frost Damage is more useful on Solstheim however, where more enemies have resistance to its opposite, Fire Damage

There are 57 distinct magical effects that cause frost damage in some form or another. This allows the game to use different visual effects for various types of frost damage, and also is one way that side-effects of the frost are customized. Other side-effects of frost spells are implemented by including multiple effects into a single spell.